The Hut Group extends its banking facility for investment in beauty
The UK-headquartered company describes itself as one of the world’s largest online beauty and wellbeing businesses, and has been developing its M&A capacity in recent months via the launch of its group banking facilities.
It has now announced an update to these, with the company saying this will support “upcoming major investments in Beauty, Technology and Infrastructure, enabling the Group to continue to deliver on its growth plans”.
The enhanced facility increases and extends the current revolving credit facility to a 4-year deal while the M&A facility has also been extended to become a 3-year deal.
As part of this refinancing, the Group welcomes Shanghai Pudong Development Bank into the revolving credit facility, reflecting the significance of Asian markets which now accounts for over 20% of Group Sales.
Poland distribution warehouse financed
THG says that in addition to the expanded facilities, the Group has also agreed new property funding up to €40m with Intesa Sanpaolo to finance the freehold acquisition and fit out of the recently commissioned Distribution Warehouse in Wroclaw, Poland.
The new 800,000 sq. ft. fulfilment and manufacturing facility will provide the Group with faster and more efficient access to almost 300 million online shoppers, helping keep pace with the continued global growth.
THG in beauty
THG continues to grow rapidly, with 2018 sales in excess of $1.2bn.
As a big pillar in this growth, the Group continues to invest in its own brand proposition, particularly its ever-growing beauty portfolio.
It beauty business is powered by THG Ingenuity, its proprietary e-commerce technology platform. The platform, which generates global consumer demand insights, continues to grow and now trades on over 166 localised websites across 46 languages and 42 currencies.
Matthew Moulding, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of THG, said: “We are thrilled to build on the continued support shown by our banking syndicate and also very much look forward to working with our new partners. We value their support and the partnership we have developed with each of them.
“Our new property funding for our distribution warehouse in Poland, alongside this extension of our credit facilities are further powerful additions, for the Group and its business model, as we continue to deliver on our ambitions of becoming the global digital leader across the Beauty and Wellbeing sector and drive forward our expansion plans.”
